I have found that when I mentor new wedding planners and they start to do well, they tell me how lucky they are that they have gotten clients quickly and everything has fallen into place for them.

I like to point out to them that they actually made their own good luck. They took the time and made the effort to do the things they needed to do to open the door for opportunities.

Here are 5 things that are true for the new wedding planners who seem to have all of the luck:

1) They get out and meet lots of  people

I don’t mean just going to business networking events. These wedding planners belong to social organizations, are active members at their places of worship, and are part of small social groups such as book clubs. People refer and do business with people they know, like, and trust and some of the best ways to get to know people are by participating in social activities.

2) They create good relationships with other wedding professionals

Don’t just go out and shake hands with a few vendors and take a business card, spend some time getting to know them. Successful new planners create relationships and friendships with high quality vendors who work with the brides in their niche. They share referrals and together create fabulous weddings for their brides.

3) They have a website and/or blog that addresses their niche

Their websites and blogs aren’t necessarily fancy or the most beautiful, but they look professional. They are also filled with photographs of weddings they have done and brief testimonials.

Their blog posts are topics that are of concern to the brides in their niche. Examples: how to uphold cultural traditions, if that is of interest to their brides, or how to manage work, relationships and wedding planning when they are speaking to a career minded bride.

4) They speak passionately and positively about their clients

Wedding planners who are successful love what they do and speak about their work in loving terms. They also speak respectfully about their clients and always have a friendly, positive attitude towards everyone.

5) They don’t let themselves get discouraged

I’ve mentored wedding planners who have had health issues and all sorts of things unfortunate things occur in their lives while they were building their businesses. Sometimes we’ve worked together to change niches or offer different services to accommodate their personal lives. Their business might look differently than they thought it would, however, they always persevered and got the success they wanted.

If you haven’t felt like a “lucky” new wedding planner, it’s time to get out and start making some of your own luck.

Competition is stiff among wedding photographers and in order to survive, many have come up with new services to sell and new ideas on how to sell their services.  A few of things they do and how you can use their ideas for your wedding planing business:

• Expand their services.  Event though they are wedding photographers, they also photograph other type of events.  You can plan other social events and business events.

• Keep in touch with couples and take their babies’ portraits and photograph their birthday parties.   Your contact with the bride should continue also as she may need you to plan baby showers or birthday and anniversary parties.

• During a difficult negotiation, one photographer offered a discount to a bride on Facebook if she agreed to “friend” him and put his photographs on her pages.  You might want to offer some additional consulting time instead of a discounts when you do any type of negotiation.

You can read the article in The New York Times website.

Here is the reason I’m writing about this. The other day I was doing some research on the Internet. I came across an article I thought was going to be about ideas wedding planners could use to increase revenue. It was basically an article about an herbal drink, sold through multi-level marketing, which the author thought wedding planners should sell to their clients as an alternative to alcoholic beverages. I went to her website, she says she is a wedding planner, and it again was a sales pitch for the drink. So is she a wedding planner or a salesperson for the drink who is targeting brides and wedding planners? It looks to me like she is a drink salesperson.

If you want to become a top wedding planner, then focus on planning weddings. Offer products and services that are related to it, such as invitations, favors, party rental, but keep your attention and your marketing message focused on your core business.

Surf the Internet and you will find many companies that sell ordination packages. There are even some specifically made for wedding planners and people who want to become wedding ministers. Before you invest, I would suggest you do some research and make sure your state and the county would fully recognize any ceremonies you perform. You don’t want to marry a couple only to have them find out later that the ceremony was not legal.